I worked with Mark Trieb at the beginning of my career, as I was fresh out of school and full of spit and vinegar. He was a young executive, with newly found exponential success as one of the leading principals of a retirement planning consulting organization. His hard-charging business style drove significant growth for his actuarial offices in Dallas and subsequently Minneapolis and Salt Lake City. Quick to adapt to software technology (this was the 80's folks), he was a visionary in his day in the realm of financial software applications and the efficiencies that he could gain from them. This innovation drove Milliman & Robertson to become a prime merger candidate with their European sister company, Bacon & Woodrow whose merger formed the Woodrow Milliman juggernaut. Mark is still engaged with the evolved company Milliman, Inc. which continues business to this day.
This fertile entrepreneurial ground was where I found myself at the beginning of my career path and I soaked it up with reckless abandon. Mark taught me some critical principles like hard work, long hours, and the insatiable drive to improve, streamline, and dominate whatever project had to be done. The work was difficult and I was forced to learn new things every day, but I quickly adapted and adopted his style of business and to this day I believe it has formed me into the man that I am today.
I worked with Mark for over eight years, including a generous sabbatical where I served a two year mission and then returned. Mark allowed me the opportunity to grow into the rich technology sector including database development, office automation, and data-integrated forms processing systems for 5500-C forms packages.
I will always remember his precision, his driven nature, his narrow focus, and his thirst for not only a good solution, but the best solution. That innate logic has remained with me for all of these years and I thank him for that influence.